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Disney World 2013: Seriously, skip the Food and Wine Festival. At least, avoid it on the weekend.

Had I known that the Epcot Food and Wine Festival* would turn Epcot into an overcrowded all-day happy hour, I would’ve avoided the place entirely. Unfortunately I didn’t. On top of that, I probably picked the worst day to go. On a Saturday. When all the locals came out to play.

The whole thing was a disappointment. The night before, when the family had gone to sleep, I had stayed up to plan the route we would take to sample all the food. Wild mushrooms filet mignon in Canada? Yes please. Waffle with braised beef in Belgium? Sure. Lobster and seafood fisherman’s pie in Ireland? Get in my belly. But when we actually got there and saw THE CROWD, I know we were going nowhere fast (literally). Luke and I pretty much agreed that there was no way we were going to wait in the lines (that looped around and around) with two antsy kids. Heck, we wouldn’t even wait in the lines if it was just the two of us.

So…instead of leisurely walking from country to country at the World Showcase, we basically zoomed past it. We didn’t even go on our favorite rides in Mexico and Norway! The madness. The kids were bored.We did make a pit stop at Morocco to play with the fountains. Although we missed the World Showcase, we made up for it at the Future World. We did everything that the kids were able to do, and here are some pictures!"Shhhh, Pooh is sleeping."Living with the Land @ The Land. One of my favorite slow boat ride.Photo ops @ The Living SeasInside Spaceship EarthSmiling childrenImageWorks @ Imagination! Will was napping on me.

*The Epcot Food and Wine Festival is an annual event held at Epcot. It typically runs from late September to early November. In that time period, booths are set up in the World Showcase with different countries representing and offering all kinds of food. If you are on the Disney Dining Plan, some of the menu items can be purchased as a snack. When we got to Epcot that day, we had like 18 snacks left to use. And I wanted to use a big chunk of it at the festival. Silly, silly me. We used zero.

Comments

Too bad you weren't able to eat some of the yummy foods you mentioned but I would have also zoomed right past the crowds. Sucks when what we plan/hope to happen, doesn't happen that way, but this seems the norm with kids. You just avoid crowds and lines like the plague.

Sorry to hear that your original plan didn't work out but at least it wasn't a total waste and you still got to do lots in the other part of the park. Reminds me of this past weekend, we originally planned to take the kids to this apple festival but it was way too crowded so we ended up going to other places close to where it was being held.~Zi

Never again, lesson learned, win some you lose some. So yes, that day sucked but it was also good for us to learn to steer clear of this event forever and ever. The high-lite of the whole day was Will calling the green tea ice-cream in Japan "soap" and "bubbles". That brought along some well need laughs.